ODE releases report cards on school districts
By Maria Lindsay
GREATER AKRON — Four of the six school districts in the West Side Leader coverage area got top marks, one received the second highest rating and one continues to struggle to improve, according to the results of the 2006-07 Ohio Department of Education (ODE) school district report cards released last week.
The state report cards rank school
districts as Excellent, Effective, Continuous Improvement,
Academic Watch and Academic Emergency based on how many
of the 30 state indicators are met with a passing grade
of 75 percent (schools with scores of 29-30 are labeled
Excellent, while those with 0-9 are labeled
in Academic Emergency). The indicators include test
results in reading, math, writing, social studies and
science administered in grades three through 11, as
well as attendance and graduation rates.
School districts also are scored
on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which measures student
improvement from year to year, as well as on a Performance
Index, which represents district-wide student achievement.
If a school district fails to
meet AYP goals, it can be moved from any category into
Continuous Improvement.
Among the school districts to
receive the highest rating — Excellent —
for meeting at least 29 of 30 standard indicators or
scoring at least 100 on the Performance Index and meeting
AYP goals, was Copley-Fairlawn City Schools (meeting
29 indicators and achieving a score of 103.8 on the
Performance Index); Highland Local Schools (29 and 103.6);
Norton City Schools (27 and 100.2); and Revere Local
Schools (30 and 105.9).
Woodridge Local Schools (26 and
98.7) received the second highest rating of Effective,
while Akron Public Schools (APS) (8 and 83.7) scored
at the bottom of the list of schools in Summit County,
with a rating of Continuous Improvement.
Copley-Fairlawn and Revere school
districts also came out on top for meeting the critical
AYP goal, while APS, Highland, Norton and Woodridge
did not.
Revere was the second highest
scoring school district in Summit County (Hudson City
Schools was first), while Copley-Fairlawn placed third.
“This is the eighth
consecutive year that the district
has earned an Excellent rating,” stated Revere
Local Schools Superintendent Elisabeth McNicholas on
the district’s Web site. “This is a remarkable
feat that reflects the quality of work that our staff
and students put forth. This accomplishment would not
be possible without the support of parents for their
students and the support of the entire community for
the school district.”
Copley-Fairlawn City Schools
just missed the passing grade of 75 percent in fifth
grade social studies with a 74.5 percent, but passed
all other areas.
“I have confidence that
our staff will be able to address the narrowly missed
new indicator and meet the criteria as we traditionally
do,” said Copley-Fairlawn Superintendent Roger
Saurer.
Highland Local Schools was one
of the highest scoring districts in Medina County, but
lost points for failing to meet AYP goals and for having
a score of 66 percent in eighth-grade social studies.
“We were disappointed that
we did not meet the Annual Yearly Progress goals but
believe we can accomplish that in the future,”
said Highland Local Schools Superintendent Bruce Armstrong.
In the Norton City Schools District,
Superintendent David Dunn responded to the results with
a vow to work on improving areas of weakness, including
fifth-grade test scores of 64.9 percent in math and
66.5 percent in social studies, and eighth-grade scores
in social studies at 57 percent.
“We are very pleased to
achieve the Excellent rating again, but there are certainly
areas we can improve upon,”
he said. “We will evaluate the curriculum to see
what has to be done to improve those [lower scoring]
areas.”
Many school districts did not
fare well in eighth-grade social studies test scores,
as well as social studies and math scores at the fifth-grade
level.
Woodridge Local Schools failed
to meet a passing grade in fifth-grade math (73.5 percent)
and social studies (74.3 percent), as well as eighth-grade
social studies (59.2 percent) and science (74.8 percent).
While the district passed the third-grade reading test
with 77.3 percent, that mark was among the lowest scores
in the county.
Woodridge Local Schools Superintendent
Jeff Graham did not return a call for comment on the
results by presstime.
APS got the lowest scores in
the county, but it fared better when compared to the
“Big 8” school districts in the state, which
include Cleveland, Columbus, Canton, Cincinnati, Toledo,
Youngstown and Dayton. APS was the top or among the
top in most test scores, and at 78 percent had the third
highest graduation rate.
“Our results this year
are mixed; some areas are up, some down,” said
APS Superintendent Sylvester Small. “We are striving
to move into the Effective category and plan to make
some changes as testing becomes more complex. We are
on a upward trend, which is good.”
According to the district’s
Web site, APS has maintained a Continuous Improvement
rating for the past three years. While APS Performance
Index scores this year were down 2.1 points from last
year, the district did meet one more indicator this
year than last. Also posted
on the Web site, district-wide test scores in 2007,
compared to 2006, are up 42 percent in reading, 20 percent
in math and 22 percent in writing.
Other results include six schools
— Hatton and King elementary schools, Miller South
School for the Visual and Performing Arts, and Ellet
and Firestone high schools —that received an Excellent
rating.
Six schools — Judith A.
Resnik Community Learning Center (formerly Fairlawn
Elementary School); Rimer, Smith and Windemere elementary
schools; and Hyre Middle School — earned an Effective
rating. In addition, 29 earned Continuous Improvement,
and seven — including Barber, Case, Essex, Lincoln,
Rankin, Erie Island and Stewart elementary schools;
Schumacher Academy; Academy at Robinson; and Goodrich,
Jennings, Perkins, Mason, Innes, Roswell Kent and Riedinger
middle schools — received an Academic Watch rating.
Also, 24 more schools met more
indicators than in 2006.
While the district as a whole
did not meet AYP goals, 35 of 56 schools met the reading
AYP and 36 met math AYP goals. All high schools met
AYP in reading and math.
APS District officials announced
they plan to add full-time elementary reading specialists
at schools with the lowest scores and will make reading
curriculum changes to improve testing performance.
For more information on the report
cards, visit the Web site www.ode.state.oh.us.
|
